Riordan's Roundup: Nov. 26 - Dec. 2

This, my fourth aggregation and annotation of meaningful Division I wrestling matches, features the first truly big tournament of the year, Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

Tournaments

Friday, Nov. 30-Saturday, Dec. 1

Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational125: Fourth-ranked Alan Waters beats 10th-ranked Nahshon Garrett of Cornell in the finals. Nahshon is better than I thought. Cornell in general is better than I thought they would be.

Eleventh-ranked Nikko Triggas of Ohio State took fourth. He lost a close semifinals match to Waters and drops the consolation finals match to a surprising Josh Martinez of Air Force. All three service academies seem to be running very stable and respectable programs.

Michigan's 13th-ranked Sean Boyle is ousted from the tournament in the round of 12. He suffered losses to Val Rauser of Utah Valley and David Terao of American.

133: Defending national champ Logan Steiber of Ohio State may just have this wrestling thing figured out. He gleefully scampers through this bracket, registering four pins and a 12-1 major of Mizzou's eighth-ranked Nathan McCormick in the finals.

Eighth-ranked UW Badger Tyler Graff falls to Mangrum in the semis, but proceeds to third place, defeating Cornell's ninth-ranked Michael Nevinger in the consi finals.

Twelfth-ranked Camryn Jackson of Michigan has an outing he'd like to forget. He gets teched 16-1 by CSSF's Naveed Bagheri, 16-1 in the first round; he then falls to American University's John Boyle in the second round of consis.

A worse week for 14th-ranked Mizzou Tiger Nick Hucke. He goes two and out.
Harvard's defending All American, 15th-ranked Steven Keith takes fifth, losing only to Graff and Nevinger. He beats 20th-ranked Natahn Pennesi of WVU in the fifth-place match.

149: Fourth-ranked Scott Sakaguchi suffers a sudden victory upset in the quarters to Nebraska's 17th-ranked Jake Sueflohn. Sueflohn would fall in the semifinals but would navigate his way to third place in this tough weight class.

Fifth-ranked BSU Bronco Jason Chamberlain recovers from his recent loss to Scott Sakaguchi to win the title here. He beats tenth-ranked Cole Von Ohlen of Air Force in the finals 7-3. For some reason I think that Cole Von Ohlen's nickname should be "Baron," so from now on my roundups will refer to him as "Baron" Von Ohlen.

Michigan's ninth-ranked Eric Grajales loses 13-9 to UNI's Hiatt in the second round and then medical forfeits out of the tournament.

Thirteenth-ranked Buckeye Cam Tessari falls to Chamberlain in the semis, and then Sueflohn in the consi finals.

Sixteenth-ranked Drake Houdashelt wrestles tough against Chamberlain in the second round, but drops out in the round of 12 when he loses to Northern Colorado's Justin Gonzalez.

Don't look now, but 20th-ranked USMA cadet Daniel Young is putting together an impressive season. He places eighth here.

157: Sixth-ranked Cornhusker James Green does not have his best outing. He loses 7-6 to UVa's Jedd Moore in the quarters, wins one more match, and medically forfeits to eighth place.

Fourteenth-ranked David Bonin of UNI takes fifth place.

Ohio State's 15th-ranked Josh Demas shockingly gets whipped 15-0 in the round of 12 by Navy's Bobby Barnhisel. I'm not sure what is going on there.

Seventeenth-ranked George Ivanov of BSU also falls to Barnhisel, this time in the consi quarters. Ivanov places seventh.

Finally, 18th-ranked Oregon State wrestler R.J. Pena, stands on top of this weight, beating Jedd Moore in the finals.

165: Kyle "Come on, I really ought to win the Hodge at least once" Dake hangs lopsided scores and pins on his opponents as he easily wins this tournament.

UVa's seventh-ranked Nick Sulzer loses a 1-0 nail-biter to NDSU's Steven Monk in the semifinals, he goes on to place third. Monk falls 6-0 to Dake in the finals.

174: Eighth-ranked Robert Kokesh of Nebraska has gone from a highly ballyhooed redshirt freshman to a quietly stellar sophomore. He wins the title at this weight and does so in fairly dominant fashion.

197: Kent's Dustin Kilgore storms to first place, but wrestles some tight matches along the way. First to tOSU's Andrew Campolattano, apparently Kilgore's weekly foil, 6-3, and then in the finals to Wyoming's fourth-ranked Alfonso Hernandez, 5-4.

Mizzou's fifth-ranked Brent Haynes falls to OSU's Taylor Meeks in the consi semis, and then gets pasted 13-1 by Campolattano in the fifth place match. Meeks take fourth to ASU's 17th-ranked Jake Meredith makes a surprising run to a bronze medal, punctuated by some lopsided scores on the backend.

197: Fourteenth-ranked Chrstian Boley of Maryland places third. He only loses to PSU redshirt Morgan McIntosh in the semis. Third-ranked Quentin Wright, also of PSU, beats McIntosh in the finals, 5-2.

285: Jimmy Lawson places second here, defeating a previous NCAA round of twelve wrestler in The Citadel's Odie Delaney, in sudden victory. Delaney also falls to PSU's Jon Gingrich by major in the consi finals. PSU may not have lost as much as expected at heavyweight with the graduation of Cameron Wade.